Anoectochilus roxburghii is a wild edible species and has been traditionally used for a wide range of diseases in many countries. Our research aims to find the optimal light-emitting diode (LED) lighting conditions to improve the growth and development of A. roxburghii seedling at the acclimation stage. Two-month-old explants were cultured under the various lighting conditions including red (R), blue (B), BR (one blue: four red), BRW151 (one blue: five red: one white), BRW142 (one blue: four red: two white), and fluorescent lamp (FL). The results showed that the lighting conditions not only affect the growth and morphology of plants but also the accumulation of total flavonoids. Single wavelengths (B or R LED) inhibited the growth and secondary biosynthesis of A. roxburghii, while the BR LED showed an enhancement in both growth and biomass accumulation. A. roxburghii plants were grown under BR LED light has average plant height (7.18 cm), stem diameter (17.6mm), number of leaves (5.78 leaves/tree), leaf area (4.67 cm²), fresh weight (0.459 g/tree), dry matter percentages (11.69%), and total flavonoid (1.811 mg/g FW) is considered to be superior to FL lamps and other LEDs in the experiment. This indicates that both blue and red wavelengths are required for the normal growth of A. roxburghii. To learn more about how light affects flavonoid biosynthesis, we evaluated the expression of genes involved in this process (pal, chs, chi, and fls) and found that BR LED light enhances the expression level of chi and fls genes compared to fluorescent lamps (1.18 and 1.21 times, respectively), leading to an increase in the flavonoid content of plant. Therefore, applying BR LED during in vitro propagation of A. roxburghii could be a feasible way to improve the medicinal value of this plant.

Recently, many scientists have been making remarkable efforts to enhance the efficiency of direct solar thermal absorption collectors that depends on working fluids. There are a number of heat transfer fluids being investigated and developed. Among these fluids, carbon nanomaterial-based nanofluids have become the candidates with the most potential by the heat absorbing and transfer properties of the carbon nanomaterials. This paper provides an overview of the current achievements in preparing and exploiting carbon nanomaterial-based nanofluids to direct thermal solar absorption. In addition, a brief discussion of challenges and recommendations for future work is presented.

Carbon Nanotube and Graphene Aerogels (CNTAs & GAs)- the world’s lightest 3D materials (GA isseven times lighter than air - a cubic meter weighs just 160 grams) attracted widespread attention due to their excellent mechanical compressible properties, high temperature and thermal stability, recyclable and highly efficient organic pollutants adsorption capability (GA can absorb up to 900 times its own weight in oil and do so quickly, with one gram of Aerogel able to absorb up to 68.8 grams of organics per second). In this review, we present briefly recent progress in synthesis methods for fabrication of 3D CNTAs andGAs and their emerging applications in the field of environmental protection such as removingoil, organic pollutants, arsenic ions and other toxic metalsfrom water. Furthermore, to assist advanced research for practical applications of these 3D materials, the technical challenges are discussed, and future research directions are proposed.

The environmental impacts of photoluminescence and light-emitting diode (LED) lighting technologies in horticulture are described in this paper. As a case study, the life cycle assessment (LCA) associated with the raw materials, air, water and natural resources of screw-based compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) and screw-based horticultural LED lamps (abbreviated as H-LED) used for “night break” effect in chrysanthemum cultivation is considered. Instead of the unit of radiant power of lighting sources (lumens) used in human lighting, the photon flux (micromoles per second) of the plant light is used in this study. The results of the study show that the environmental impacts of the H-LED lighting technology are markedly less than the fluorescent lamps. Therefore, the shift to LED lighting technology in horticulture in general, and “night break” chrysanthemum cultivation in particular, brings about tremendous benefits not only for saving energy and improving crop quality, but also for protecting the air/climate, water, soil and natural resources.